Former Orioles Chris Hoiles Live On THE FAN
Former Orioles catcher, Chris Hoiles joined The Vinny and Rob Show on 105-7 THE FAN Friday morning to discuss the Orioles success and Matt Wieters.
Chris Hoiles
Hoiles was the Oriole's catcher in the 1990's and was able to play with some great players during his time. Cal Ripken Jr, Roberto Alomar, Brady Anderson, BJ Surhoff, and caught pitchers like Mike Mussina, Jimmy Key, and Randy Myers. It is fair to say that Hoiles knows a good ball club when he sees one and he says he is seeing one right now. Hoiles believes that this is a team that will compete all the way in to the playoffs.
When asked about Matt Wieters productivity, Hoiles adamantly stood up for him. Since Wieters has been called up several years ago he has had a tremendous amount of weight put on his shoulders. He is a young but mature catcher running a young pitching staff. His defense has won him two Gold Gloves but lately his hitting has come in to question, "Offensively the numbers that he is putting up right now and where he's at right now is not an indication of what type of hitter Matt is and what he can be..." Hoiles has been at Orioles spring training the last two years and had very high praise of Wieters.
Hoiles believes that Matt does indeed call a very game good and always is tremendous defensively. Wieters is a studier. He knows his pitchers inside and out by watching film. Especially with the revolving door that has been the Orioles pitching staff the last three years this is no small task.
Rob brought up the position of second base for the O's. So far this year the position has been filled by a committee. Alexi Casilla and Ryan Flarhety have seen the most time at second but Brian Roberts is on his way back from injury and is doing well in Triple-A Norfolk. If Roberts can hold down the second base position Hoiles believes that the only thing this team is missing is another starting pitcher.
Chris Davis was another topic of interest and has been all season. Hoiles attributed Davis's success with his new plate discipline. Davis is able to get more counts in his favor which allows him to see more fastballs. Davis is five homeruns and eleven RBI's shy of his totals from last year.
(Programming Note: Intern Zach wrote and posted this article as part of his internship program with CBS Baltimore. Zach is a Communications & History major at Loyola University Maryland.)
